Mr Ideh Uchechukwu Crescent, the geologist who discovered the gas reserves at Caritas University, Amorji Nike, Enugu has said that more investigations should be done to ascertain the level of the discovery.
Mr Uchechukwu and his team were drilling water when they discovered gas vaporization.
Speaking exclusively to standardobservers.com, he said that according to the survey, no pipeline was laid in the area, adding that the depth upon which the gas was discovered ruled out any possibility that it was a ruptured pipeline.
He said: “We were drilling. Our main aim was to get water. A survey was carried out at the campus. The survey report recommended a drill of approximately 400 metres to get water. On getting to three hundred meters, we started experiencing vapour, emissions.
“The rig that we were using is a hammer rig, it is air drilling. We thought it was our compressor because sometimes, the air from the compression and the dust vaporise. So when we stopped drilling, we discovered that the vapour was still coming out. We pulled out our drilling stem and by the time we finished pulling, the well caught fire.
“Other investigations have not been conducted in respect to the emission of the gas but to me, I am suspecting that it is methane gas”.
On whether it is likely a ruptured pipeline, he said “That was what we suspected initially but in that axis, there is no pipeline because, in areas where pipelines are, they usually post signs.
“The depth we penetrated, I don’t think they can lay pipelines like 1000 feet because that was the depth where we encountered the vaporisation. We are also supposed to see some particles of the iron and we didn’t”.
He said that other investigations should be carried out to determine the exact type of gas that was discovered.
